Weekly roundup (18-24 August 2019)

From India, China-Trump currency war, a US$3 billion Token Ponzi Scheme, to the new “Satoshi” in town

With only a decade in existence, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology remains to be a big puzzle in the eyes of many, including regulatory bodies in the world.

Asia, for example, is making headlines with regulators in the region maintaining their hard stand on virtual currencies. Interestingly, they’re embracing the technology that underpins them. Apart from regulations, does the China-U.S currency war present an opportunity for Bitcoin to take over? Are Asian companies making more significant strides in blockchain technology than the rest of the world? What about an exclusive economic zone running on digital currency? Is a Chinese Tether on the way?

In this weekly roundup, we look at the top 7 crypto topics making headlines in the past seven days:

The week opened on a sad note. News spread that a crypto investment scheme, Plus Token, could no longer be traced. Unfortunately, this was after it accumulated roughly 3 billion U.S. dollars from 10 million investors. Investments were made in the form of Ether (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), EOS (EOS), among other cryptocurrencies in exchange for Plus Token.

Apart from an abnormally yearly rate of return of 700 percent, investors may have been drawn by Plus Token’s claims that a team developed the token from Google and Samsung.

Fortunately, the core team members were arrested and could face time in jail. However, the cryptocurrency they scammed is unlikely to be recovered.

However, to evade tracking, the Ponzi scheme is purportedly dumping Bitcoin in Binance, the largest crypto exchange.

When the Chinese renminbi (RMB) fell below the sensitive level of 7 when pitted against the U.S. dollar, the United States’ president, Donald Trump, pounced on China. According to Trump, China is a “currency manipulator” since it’s deliberately weakening its currency.

However, China’s central bank governor, Yi Gang, refuted the claims saying that “China would refrain from competitive devaluations, and will not target exchange rate for competitive purposes.”

But, Michael J Casey, a senior advisor at the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, is confident that it’s time for Bitcoin to shine. For Casey, the grip governments had on markets is slowly diluting. As such, Casey continued, “even more extreme market turmoil over currency-war” is a possibility going forward.

Luckily, Casey bets on Bitcoin for protection:

“Regardless of your own beliefs, a sufficiently large number of other people now believe Bitcoin to be the best way to hedge against political-economic turmoil in the global financial system.”

With an active crypto ban in China, the country’s Internet companies are heavily investing in blockchain technology and 5G networks.

Tencent, for example, in its blockchain wing, has been actively researching the creation of high-end and scalable blockchain-based applications. Huawei, on the other hand, has heavily invested in 5G research. Notably, Huawei’s investments exceed those made by leading U.S. and European-based firms combined.

In terms of blockchain, Zhang Xiaojun, the blockchain project director at Huawei, said:

“Huawei is willing to work with the industry to accelerate the blockchain business structure and help transform the digital economy.”

Shenzhen, a city bordering China and Hong Kong, is expected to expand its offering to include digital currencies. Apart from digital currencies, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone will house other innovative applications such as mobile payments.

Additionally, the Chinese central government aims at transforming the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone into a global force within a span of 5 to 30 years. Notably, Shenzhen is home to reputable firms such as Huawei and Tencent.

There’s a new “Satoshi” in town! Zhong Bencong claims to be the real Bitcoin creator. To prove the claims, Bencong published a 3-part blog post detailing, among other things, the origin of the word Bitcoin, how Bitcoin’s 21 million cap was calculated, and the numerical meaning of Satoshi Nakamoto.

Unfortunately, the revelation of “Satoshi Nakamoto” after over ten years of anonymity was not in vain. Bencong flaunted Tabula Rosa, a supposedly new and improved version of Bitcoin.

With Tether’s USD-pegged stablecoin, USDT, ruling the stablecoin market, Tether is preparing to create another stablecoin pegged to the Chinese fiat currency. Zhao Dong, a Bitfinex shareholder, revealed the news noting that his company, RenrenBit, would be among the first CNHT investors.

Etherscan’s research added credibility to Dong’s revelation. As per the research, CNHT has been in development since April, and the token’s total supply is rumored to be 10 million CNHT tokens placed in one smart contract.

In an unpredictable of events in the ongoing crypto case at India’s Supreme Court, the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), was ordered to comprehensively address issues raised by cryptocurrency businesses regarding its banking ban.While some crypto critics have hailed India for denying crypto businesses banking services and planning to ban cryptocurrency transactions, others have warned that such moves will be detrimental to the country’s economy.